Friday, October 11, 2013

Meaning of being liberal...

I read this message on someone's Facebook wall, I think this message does a pretty good job to explain the meaning of being liberal as well as some problems sometimes liberal people face in our society, it also tries to clear some misconception about the term tolerance. Being tolerant doesn't at all means weak or submissive, most people who make fun of non-violence philosophy equate tolerance with weakness or cowardliness but in reality it's exactly opposite. I consider myself a liberal and open-minded person, by this I mean a person who respects other individual on equal terms regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, who is willing to listen to others views and share my views in very democratic and civilized way. I believe in discussions, debates and dialogues rather than forcing my opinion on someone. I also believe that there can be more than one right answers or solutions to same problem, saying 'my way is the only right way' is not by habit but that doesn't mean I accept whatever others say even if I don't agree, if I don't agree to certain things I make sure to express my disagreement in civilized way, being liberal and tolerant doesn't mean to agree and accept each and everything thrown at you.

I also believe that people can live peacefully and work for betterment of society even if they don't agree on some issues or have difference of opinion, we can always agree to disagree with each other and move on. This is very important to know because many people, specially in comment section of some of blog posts expect that as I claim to be liberal and open-minded I should accept their views as correct views and also accept what they call 'my mistakes' (that is my views), so they wish me to align my views along with theirs because I claim to be liberal. They also question me objecting to some famous personality's opinion, they claim it's an insult to that person. According to them being liberal means arbitrarily respecting everyone and accepting everything, basically they mean, don't challenge anyone because 'you are liberal' so you should respect each and everything. As a open-minded person I am willing to listen to their views and ideas but I have no obligation to agree with them (or with anyone) if I don't find those things right. I also believe that there are some things which no one should tolerate like gender discrimination, racism or casteism, sexual abuse, terrorism, etc., but there are some people who support these things directly or indirectly and I am willing to listen to their side of story but I just can not agree that these things in any form are acceptable to any civilized human society or culture.

I guess many people have serious misconception about what is meant by being liberal, it does mean being open to all ideas and views but that doesn't mean one should also accept them as it is. Liberals can very much disagree and oppose views and ideas with which they don't agree but the major difference is they don't just want to silence the people who voice ideas by force but want to change those views, they believe in change via debates and discussions, they believe in constructive criticism and dialogue but at the same time there are certain things on which they can't compromise, they also have their own beliefs. But according to me the major difference between liberal and hardcore conservative is, liberals acknowledge that there can be difference of opinion and there can be a disagreement on some issues, we can have debate or discussions about them but in the end we can live together peacefully even with all our differences, this last part of sentence is really important and crucial for tolerant and progressive society. Tolerant society is a type of society where everyone has right to express their opinion, at the same time everyone has right to question also, people are allowed to question anything and everything, debates and discussions are integral part of such society, logic and rational plays very important role, there are few basic things which no society should tolerate, once we understand this then no matter who we are, liberal or conservative, we all can live together peacefully.